Paramount's Split
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Paramount Q4, Tom Hardy’s Havoc, and a Redux.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount Global’s Q4 earnings show net losses with healthy theatrical revenue.
Havoc, starring Tom Hardy, is the biggest film yet for Gareth Evans (dir: The Raid: Redemption).
Prime drops a trailer for Paul Feig’s sequel Another Simple Favor, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively reprising their roles.
Guy Ritchie's crime drama MobLand will premiere March 30 on Paramount+.
Gossip Girl actress Michelle Trachtenberg has sadly and unexpectedly passed away at age 39.
Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini is the newest cast member to join Mike Newell’s The Bitter End.
CPH:DOX, one of the biggest doc festivals, has a great lineup, including a cult film.
Redux Redux will signal Emmy-nominated directors of American Vandal making a triumphant return to SXSW.
Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Assessment, a sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen.
Tribeca doc Asog is acquired by Film Movement.
Vice Studios has signed a distribution deal with ITV Studios.
An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film tackles the life of Don Quixote writer Cervantes.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Paramount Global’s Q4 earnings laid out continued operational challenges with net losses. Although, thankfully, their theatrical business is healthy:
$224 M net loss Q4
Down ↓ 143.6% from $514 M Profit ‘23
$7.98 bn revenue Q4
↑ 5%
$4.98 bn TV/Media revenue Q4
↓ 4%
$414 M theatrical revenue Q4
↑ 430.8% ($370 M)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 drove $483 M worldwide box office
Paramount streaming was the sunny spot as their DTC division reported healthy gains:
$2.0 bn DTC revenue Q4
↑ 7 %
$1.44 bn Subscription revenue Q4
↑ 7%
$286 M loss Q4
Up 42%
Up from $490 M loss YoY
77.5 M subs
↑ 5.6M for the quarter
Paramount+ increased revenue by 16% for Q4.
The office of the CEO stated:
“DTC profitability improved $1.2 bn in 2024, driven by an impressive year at Paramount+, where we added 10 million new subscribers and delivered a 33% increase in revenue, which gives us great confidence Paramount+ will achieve full year domestic profitability for 2025.”
Skydance acquired Paramount, and pending any regulatory approval, the deal will close in the first half of this year.
Havoc, starring Tom Hardy, is the biggest film yet for Gareth Evans, The Raid: Redemption (2011) cult action director.
Here’s the synopsis:
After a drug deal gone wrong, a bruised detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician's estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.
What made The Raid so wild was its non-stop Indonesian martial arts and brutal kills. And by the looks of the Havoc teaser it’s going to be one hell of a bloody ride. Hardy is smashing in people’s faces with a pipe. Forest Whitaker is scaring the shit out of everybody. You get the gist. What also stood out were some of the gritty, epic POV camera moves.
We look forward to catching this on Netflix on April 25th.
“Revenge is a dish best served chilled, with a twist.”
Nothing is as it seems in the first trailer for Paul Feig’s sequel film Another Simple Favor (IMDb), seeing the return of Anna Kendrick opposite Blake Lively in the follow-up to the widely successful 2018 dark comedy.
The trailer sees the frenemy duo unexpectedly reunited in a strange turn of events (and poor decision-making by Kendrick’s Stephanie), sees them internationally involved in yet another murder mystery full of glamor, manipulation, a much bigger budget, and fun new cast additions like the always committed Allison Janney.
From a script by Jessica Sharzer, who adapted the $100 M grossing original film, Another Simple Favor will make its world premiere at SXSW on March 7th before streaming globally on Prime May 1st.
Mini Tidbit:
Guy Ritchie's crime drama MobLand will premiere March 30 on Paramount+, following an Irish crime family in London. Possibly one of the most stacked casts for Paramount, starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Tom Hardy, it evolved from a Ray Donovan (IMDb) spinoff.
This is hard to watch. But for those interested, Hulu is premiering Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna on March 11th (trailer). From the looks of the trailer, it seems to be in honor of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who died after a live bullet was fired on the set of the Alec Baldwin film Rust.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Gossip Girl actress Michelle Trachtenberg (IMDb) has sadly and unexpectedly passed away at age 39.
Starting in commercials as young as three years old, at nine, she secured the titular role in Harriet the Spy (1996) while shortly after in another big get, appeared as Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy’s younger sister Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).
She continued to make a name for herself in the early 2000s, starring as the lead in Disney’s Ice Princess (2005, scene) and the hit Zac Efron-led comedy 17 Again (2009). As a successful child actress playing opposite some real bonafide movie stars, Trachtenberg was always able to hold her own, giving mature performances in adolescent films.
She is perhaps best known, though, for her major role as the manipulative young socialite Georgina Sparks on the CW’s Gossip Girl (2007-2012, scene).
With a character made purely to be an antagonist to the rest of the teenage ensemble, over the course of the six seasons, the actress was able to bring a humorous playfulness to the role that was not meant to be taken too seriously. Due to Trachtenberg’s purposeful take on an otherwise straightforward character, Sparks became an undeniable fan favorite and scene-stealer by the show’s ending.
Trachtenberg’s final onscreen role was a reprisal of her iconic mean girl character for two episodes on the short-lived Max reboot of the show back in 2021, which was loved by longtime fans.
Trachtenberg was loved by many and will be very missed.
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Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini is the newest cast member to join Mike Newell’s The Bitter End (IMDb), playing opposite the incomparable Joan Collins (Dynasty). Written by novelist Louise Fennell, the film will depict the final years of Simpson, the American divorcee who became Duchess of Windsor after marrying King Edward VIII.
Rossellini will play the fierce French lawyer Suzanne Blum who, despite her obsessiveness with control, has a profound impact on Simpson. Much like her Oscar-nominated role as the understated but strong-willed Sister Agnes in Edward Berger’s papal drama Conclave (2024), Blum is especially smart and can get what she wants.
And we love to see her a tad megalomaniacal.
Production on the film is set to begin in May 2025.
Doctor Who Season 2 premieres April 12 on Disney+ and BBC. Alan Cumming will guest star as the animated Mr. Ring-a-Ding. Ncuti Gatwa returns as the Doctor, facing new dangers with companions Varada Sethu and Millie Gibson.
FESTIVALS
CPH:DOX, one of the biggest doc festivals in the world, is kicking off in Copenhagen on March 19th with a great lineup. Including a cult doc that is worthy of HBO:
https://theindustry.co/p/cphdox-2025
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A Revenge story that spans multiple realities: Redux Redux will signal Kevin and Matthew McManus, Emmy-nominated directors and co-writers of American Vandal, making a triumphant return to SXSW 2025. The film follows a grieving mother, played by Michaela McManus, who travels through parallel universes to repeatedly kill her daughter's murderer, becoming addicted to revenge. Drawing comparisons to Everything Everywhere All at Once, the project is a buzzy sales title at SXSW, with XYZ Films handling North American distribution and Blue Finch Films overseeing international sales. Violence with sci-fi elements is perfect for SXSW.
Check out the trailer here.
For More:
Though very different in tone, American Vandal was a perfect black comedy lampoon of Netflix's own late 2010 murder-style documentary. It's sequel is even darker, spoofed docs like Bowling for Columbine but replaced tragedy with a widespread food poisoning event. Absolutely hilarious and with a surprising puzzle box mystery.
American Vandal - Trailer
American Vandal Season 2 - Trailer
Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Assessment, a sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, and Himesh Patel, set for a theatrical release on March 21 after premiering at the TIFF. Directed by Fleur Fortuné in her feature debut, the film follows a couple in a resource-scarce future undergoing a high-stakes government assessment to determine their eligibility for parenthood, which quickly spirals into a psychological nightmare. Magnolia’s executives praised the film’s gripping performances, imaginative world, and cast, saying:
“[The actors] are all beyond fantastic in this scary, twisted, mind-blower movie. Fleur has fashioned an incredibly imaginative world that feels terrifyingly believable.”
The Assessment hits theaters on March 21st.
Tidbit:
There is something vital and interesting about an artist who has to become something false to sell his work and hides his darkest nightmares. Painter Thomas Kinkade, who by the sounds of the trailer was grossing at one point $100 M for his cookie-cutter work, masqueraded as a man of faith but, in fact, held dark demons. He kept a vault where he hid his true works of art: those that portrayed unspeakable devils.
Finally, Asog has been acquired. The doc played at Cannes Docs, Tribeca and has a wild list of EPs:
Adam McKay
Alan Cumming
Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island)
The film/doc uses the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded, to tell a tale of a biblical act of nature on the Filipino community. Film Movement (Stranger Eyes) picked up the rights. See the trailer here.
Former CEO and The Crown EP Andy Harries (IMDb) has now been named Executive Chairman of his British Production Company, Left Bank. His newly-created post will see him continue to provide oversight and guidance on the creative direction of the Sony-owned company. Harries will continue to EP shows including the forthcoming adaptation of James Graham’s Dear England and Scott Frank’s Department Q for Netflix, which is due in the early Summer. While a replacement is being searched for, Harris will remain CEO until next year.
LA-based independent movie financier Volcanic Films is launching a strategic partnership with production company Film Bridge International and a slate of its own films. Volcanic has boarded Film Bridge’s western Killing Faith (IMDb) starring current Oscar nominee Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) and Independence Day’s Bill Pullman, with the movie launching at festivals later this year.
Vice Studios has signed a distribution deal with ITV Studios, adding nearly 2,000 hours of content to ITV’s catalog. The deal includes Dark Side of the Ring, United Gangs of America, and most exclusively VICE on HBO.
An Oscar Winner tackles the life of Don Quixote writer Cervantes (hint: it’s not Terry Gilliam):
https://theindustry.co/p/the-captive
ON THIS DAY
1996. Happy Madison Productions is founded by Adam Sandler.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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